Jackpot

WE ARE GOBSMACKED. We don't know any other word that goes beyond shocked, and it suggests the glob of spit that we're wiping out of our eyes at the latest arrogance from Harrisburg. That would be the debate late last week in the state Senate over the gaming bill that came down to this: not WHETHER lawmakers can own a piece of gaming parlor, but HOW MUCH they can own. When the debate started, the amount was limited to 5 percent, but they got that figure "down" to 1 percent before the bill finally passed on Sunday.

Powerball has morphed into a jackpot juggernaut - the big gorilla of the lottery world - topping $200 million for the third time this year. As in since January. The last time was just six weeks ago, when New Jersey's Pedro Quezada hit an annuity prize worth $338.3 million, and collected $211 million in cash. Before taxes, of course . Because no one hit all the numbers drawn Saturday night - 7, 12, 26, 36 and 40, with a Powerball of 17 - the jackpot rose to $222 million for the annuity, or $144.5 million for the lump sum payout.

Powerball's latest jackpot is worth $320 million, big enough to make the list of the 15 biggest annuity prizes ever in the United States. The cash jackpot of $198.3 million even makes the Top 10. For the numbers drawn Wednesday night and more, see " Powerball jackpot 4th biggest ever . " 2012 was the most jackpot-crazy year ever, producing the biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever, the biggest Powerball jackpot ever, and two more Powerball...

The Powerball jackpot is up to $200 million for Wednesday's drawing, after no one hit all of Saturday night's numbers. They were 2, 16, 18, 40 and 42, with a Powerball of 33. Five tickets came close, winning $1 million by matching the first five, but not the Powerball. They were sold in New York, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas. Wednesday's cash value is estimated at $128.5 million. The jackpot has been growing for more than a month, but once the $200 million threshold is crossed, it can grow by leaps and bounds.

DES MOINES, IOWA - The historic Powerball jackpot boosted to $500 million on Tuesday was all part of a plan that lottery officials put in place early this year to build jackpots faster, drive sales and generate more money for states that run the game. Their plan appears to be working. Powerball tickets doubled in price in January to $2, and while the number of tickets sold initially dropped, sales revenue has increased by about 35 percent over 2011. Sales for Powerball reached a record $3.96 billion in fiscal 2012 and are expected to reach $5 billion this year, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Des Moines, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association, the group that runs the Powerball game.

Dale Henhaffer of Cherry Hill cashed his chips in on a 15-year friendship in early 1984 when he refused to share a $327,000 slot machine jackpot he'd won with pooled money. Yesterday, Henhaffer's friend, Karen Quitmeyer of Brigantine, N.J., was dealt the winning hand when a three-judge panel in New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division upheld her right to half the jackpot. The panel agreed with an Atlantic County jury that found Henhaffer, 30, had played the slot machine with three quarters from a "common fund" shared with Quitmeyer, who sued him for half the winnings.

For Thomas Kearney it wasn't a dream, only a piece of one. Just 10 percent. Of $6.4 million. And he almost lost it. Until earlier this week, that is, when a Florida jury said the piece was rightfully his and ordered the estate of George Moore to honor the dead man's promise - and continue paying Kearney one-tenth of the New Jersey Lottery jackpot that Moore won in 1986 when he lived in Philadelphia. For Kearney, 48, of Glendora, that means $25,000 annually over the next 18 years and a return to the retirement plans he built around his winnings.

Is Powerball poised to make another run for a record? Powerball's jackpot is up to a whopping $260 million for Wednesday's drawing, after no one hit all the numbers drawn Saturday night. They were 3, 7, 21, 44 and 53, with a Powerball of 16. Sales are certainly building. That's a jackpot jump of $44 million over just three days, $110 million in 10 days. The cash prize of $161 million is one of Powerball's biggest ever. The last time the annuity jackpot was this large was Nov. 21, when it hit $250 million.

Powerball's finally into territory where jackpots soar. A couple more rollovers could put the game across the $300 million mark, seen by Powerball only once in nearly five years. The jackpot, building since late June, rose to $212 million on Saturday night, when no one hit all the numbers drawn - 19, 30, 48, 53 and 55, with a Powerball of 18. It's the year's third biggest jackpot, trailing the $336.4 million won in Rhode Island in February, and the $241 million snagged in Iowa in June.

PHOENIX - The second winner in last week's $587.5 million Powerball drawing is a married man in his 30s from the wealthy Phoenix suburb of Fountain Hills, lottery officials said Friday. The man remained anonymous, and his prize was announced by officials who said he bought $10 worth of tickets. They said he kept the winning slip in the visor of his car before coming forward. The man opted to take the pretax cash option of $192 million. Lottery officials said his wife owns half the prize because Arizona is a community property state.

More than 100 slot machines in 11 Atlantic City casinos are now linked with more than 600 machines at casinos in Nevada under a new effort to generate larger jackpots for gamblers, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement announced Thursday. "Much like multistate lotteries, this new technology and cooperative regulatory agreements will allow combined progressive jackpots to grow, which should be very appealing to players looking for the opportunity to play for huge jackpots," said David Rebuck, New Jersey's director of gaming enforcement.

GAMBLERS AROUND the country had been waiting for yesterday's races at Gulfstream Park for months. They had spent the weekend cramming, watching videos, preparing for the chance at the score of a lifetime. The Rainbow 6, a $20 minimum bet, had been carrying over for 4 1/2 months, the jackpot up to $6.6 million. It got so huge because, unlike a typical Pick 6, the Rainbow 6 carryover pool gets paid out only if there is a single winning ticket. Yesterday was what is known as a "mandatory" payout, with anybody having all six winners getting paid.

I just got back from a book tour through 10 cities - including Las Vegas. Jackpot! Remarkably, I had never been to Vegas before. I was a Vegas virgin. How did I get to go to Las Vegas on book tour? I'm lucky. Did I test this on my trip? No. I didn't even set foot in a casino. But I did get crazy in a Barnes & Noble. So why didn't I lose my Vegas virginity? Let me give you some background. The reason I got to go to Vegas was because I asked. I get a lot of e-mail from fans who live there, and in 20 years of touring, I had never been to their town.

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. - Some lucky person walked into a Publix supermarket in suburban Florida over the last few days and bought a ticket now worth an estimated $590.5 million - the highest Powerball jackpot in history. But it wasn't Matthew Bogel. On Sunday, he loaded groceries into his car after shopping at the Publix. He shook his head when asked about the jackpot. "It's crazy, isn't it?" he said. "That's so much money. " Whoever has the ticket hadn't come forward as of Sunday afternoon.

NEW YORK - A gang of cyber-criminals stole $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then fanning out around the globe to drain cash machines, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch called it "a massive 21st-century bank heist" and compared its size to the Lufthansa heist in the late 1970s immortalized in the film Goodfellas . Lynch said the fraudsters had moved with astounding speed to loot financial institutions around the world.

Powerball has morphed into a jackpot juggernaut - the big gorilla of the lottery world - topping $200 million for the third time this year. As in since January. The last time was just six weeks ago, when New Jersey's Pedro Quezada hit an annuity prize worth $338.3 million, and collected $211 million in cash. Before taxes, of course . Because no one hit all the numbers drawn Saturday night - 7, 12, 26, 36 and 40, with a Powerball of 17 - the jackpot rose to $222 million for the annuity, or $144.5 million for the lump sum payout.

The Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots were missed over the weekend, but a Montgomery County ticket snagged a Cash 5 jackpot worth $325,000. The ticket, which matched all the numbers (4, 5, 9, 12 and 23) for the April 20 drawing, was sold at the Acme Market at 320 W. Dekalb Pike in King of Prussia. Mega Millions. Tuesday's drawing will be worth $92 million for the annuity, $69 million for the cash, because no one matched all the numbers drawn Friday night: 6, 8, 12, 22 and 43, with a Mega Ball of 28. Matching five and winning at least $250,000 were two tickets sold in New York, one each in Virginia, South Carolina, Michigan and Missouri.

Powerball's jackpot is on a faster trajectory, and California could be the cause. Two weeks ago, the most populous state in the union joined Powerball, and immediately set a record, selling $8,408,180 million worth of tickets in its first three days. That's "an all-time record for any new Powerball member," according to a California Lottery news release. More sales mean faster growing jackpots. A week ago, the grand prize was $80 million, and the last six times that happened, five times it rose by the minimal increment, first to $90 million, then to $100 million.

April 13 was lucky for a 55-year-old Delaware man, who won $1 million in the latest Powerball drawing. "My son kept telling me I need to check my tickets and I kept putting it off," the unnamed winner told lottery officials. Unlike Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Delaware lets winners remain anonymous. But on Monday night, two days after the drawing, "I called the Delaware Lottery 800 number and lost my breath when I found out the news!" he said. Every week for five years, he has bought six lottery tickets, including two for Powerball, and liked to say that someday he would win. He matched the first five numbers -- 10, 12, 31, 56 and 57, but not the Powerball of 33. No one matched them all, so the jackpot rose for Friday's drawing to $80 million for the annuity, $56.1 million for the cash.

While orchestrating a recent Powerball pool, I made a colossal blunder. I bought the 100 tickets in New Jersey. If we had hit the jackpot, and had the only winning ticket, that move could have collectively cost the 40 of us millions of dollars. If you have a choice, better, much better, to buy your lottery tickets in Pennsylvania for two reasons: (1) It's one of the only states where jackpots won within its borders are free from state and local taxes (including Philadelphia's wage tax)